US Consulate in Libya Bombed by Militant Group

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(TRIPOLI, Libya) — In the first attack on a Western mission since the ouster and death of Col. Moammar Gadhafi last fall, an American diplomatic mission in eastern Libya was bombed Wednesday by a militant group claiming the assault was meant to avenge the death of al Qaeda operative Abu-Yahya al-Libi, a fellow Libyan.

No one was hurt in the bombing at the consulate office in the city of Benghazi, which was largely left undamaged. Still, the U.S. State Department condemned the bombing, which occurred two weeks before free parliamentary elections are to take place in Libya.

A group called the Brigades of Captive Omar Abdul Rahman left leaflets at the scene to take credit for the attack, which it said was in retaliation for this week’s CIA drone missile strike in Pakistan that killed al-Libi, who was the top deputy of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The leaflets also contained a statement from the group, named after an Islamic militant jailed in the U.S., that said it had “prepared a message that will soon reach America in response to polluting the skies of the defiant city of Derna.”

Derna is an eastern city known for fueling the Islamic militancy in Libya.